More Than A Feeling is the third episode of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series, a five-part episodic adventure game from Telltale Games (Batman: The Enemy Within). In Episode 3, Star Lord must decide the fate of the Eternity Forge while dealing with unresolved history between Gamora and Nebula.

More Than A Feeling has a pretty neat opening. Peter and Gamora are trapped in a strange place that is using their own memories against them. Peter fights a childhood bully while Gamora fights her own sister. Eventually, they escape these memories to find themselves lost in the middle of some deep, dark woods.

Then, the muted sound of Livin’ Thing by Electric Light Orchestra drifts through the trees towards them. The music draws them to a familiar looking church. Inside, Peter will find a fan favourite character that makes a very welcome addition to the series, before finally revealing the answers about his mom he’s been looking for…

It’s a fun opening, but More Than A Feeling stumbles slightly when compared with the previous Rocket-centric episode. It’s time now for Gamora’s backstory to be fleshed out, but her violent history with Nebula – along with their troubled relationship with their father Thanos – is something that has already been explored quite extensively in the recent films (albeit not shown directly via flashback like it is here).

It’s not that Telltale isn’t doing a good job with the storytelling. Rather, the love/hate relationship between the assassin sisters – and Peter’s right, that would be a pretty rad band name – doesn’t present any real surprises. We get it; they may say they hate each other, but they love each other really. Sadly, that’s as far as it’s taken. It would have been nice to delve a bit deeper; there was certainly plenty of potential.

Another area that seems like a bit of a missed opportunity is the use of locations. The opening scenes aside, the majority of the episode takes place in a nondescript bar and on board the Milano. These are the guardians of the galaxy, but we’ve not been shown very much of it so far. Furthering the point, the final showdown takes place in yet another ancient temple. When Rocket reacts sarcastically to this development, it’s not hard to imagine players nodding in agreement.

However, these negatives can’t make this episode’s core moral dilemma any less torturous or delightful. The Eternity Forge may be a MacGuffin, but it’s perfect for a game built around making difficult, if not impossible, decisions. After all, pretty much everyone has someone they’d bring back to life if they could. But, if the cost is death… is it worth it? Should anyone wield that kind of power? These are the questions that make Episode 3 tick along nicely for 90 minutes.

More Than A Feeling is the middle episode of the series and it feels like it. It isn’t a bad episode by any stretch of the imagination – the writing, voice acting and music are all still top notch – but it does feel like it’s going easy on the throttle, waiting for the penultimate episode to really let rip.

Still, the final quick time event sequence is a lot of fun and the cliffhanger ending could send Episode 4 in any number of directions. It may be an uneven episode – and a bit on the short side – but the entertainment value remains high. Fingers crossed the final two episodes kick the location variety and plot development up a gear. Who else can’t wait to find out more about Groot?